and they jumped at the snow with long rakes and red bats...

Erin's latest fascination is rhyming words... She begs me constantly to play the "rhyming game" and can usually find a rhyming word to match mine. Occasionally she comes up with a non-word word, but for the most part she's getting it. So now in the car instead of listening to Barney or some other incessantly annoying kids' CD, we rhyme. Can't wait to see what the next phase will be :-)

if you forget my love, i'll try to remind you...

Here's a couple of recent Erin snapshots... She wasn't too happy about the second picture :-) These days, her Dad and I are in wide-eyed wonder at her stamina and will. She has given us a run for our money regarding daily (seemingly constant) discipline and doesn't seem to have intentions of letting up anytime soon. If I let my guard down, she capitalizes. If I'm tired, she knows it. If I'm tempted to laugh at some act of disobedience, she hams it up. She knows all my buttons and has declared war. Good thing we're bigger and smarter than she is... I'm just hoping we can match her in energy :-) Honestly, we have seen improvement since we've tightened up on our tactics and I know in time her will can be bridled! She really is such a treasure to us and I am constantly surprised at what she teaches herself... hopefully she's as willing to teach her little brother when the time comes :-)

Playing under the table and dreaming

I figure its time for an update, not that there's much to report.... We spent last weekend with Caleb's family at Ski Liberty for the annual Welty family reunion. The weather was great for hiking and swimming and Erin loved having tons of play time with her aunts and uncles.

The week prior Erin was pretty much down for the count with a nasty intestinal virus. We did lots of laundry and she lived on water and crackers for the better part of the week but managed to recover in time for the reunion.

I keep expecting to recover from morning sickness one of these days, but no luck so far. I have finally put on 2 lbs which keeps the midwife from lecturing me but I'd love just to wake up and get through a whole day without feeling nauseated and drained... I mean come on, this is week 23!! In any case, at least I know it'll be over by December :-)

Dok is here visiting this week and we are so happy!! We haven't decided yet if we'll let her go back since we're always so sad when she leaves... Kristen and I readily admit that our lives are boring without her. We love our Dok!!

Thats all for now...

its hard to explain how a few precious things seem to follow throughout all our lives...

Looks like we're having a boy!!

"People smile and tell me I'm the lucky one,
We've just begun, think I'm gonna have a son..."

The best of the rest in Red River

I wasn't the best at getting good pics everywhere we went, but this'll have to do:

They put the 'red' in Red River :-)
Erin being shy (yeah right)

Waiting for dinner...

Caleb relaxing

Hmm...

Still waiting for dinner....

Me and Nate being stupid

IDK, my BFFs Jack and Shelley?

Timmy being tortured, still waiting for dinner....

Nathan, playing hard to get

The Sandovals in Truchas, NM

In the middle of our Red River vaca, Caleb and I (and Erin) drove out to Truchas, NM to visit Caleb's great-aunt Ruth and her husband Luis. They live out on a mesa in a 200 yr old Adobe home with a beautiful view.

Aunt Ruth out on the porch
Caleb on the well. This well was dry, and up until last year Aunt Ruth and Uncle Luis were collecting rain water from the roof. They now have indoor plumbing!

Erin on the porch waiting for breakfast - we were treated to homemade walnut pancakes, fresh fruit and piping hot bacon. Yum!

The Sandoval's Adobe home

The front door

Side view of the house

The guest house where we stayed

The chapel on the grounds

The corral... There was also a bunk house that I didn't get a picture of because it was too far back on the property.

The Rio Grande Gorge

For those of us who haven't seen the Grand Canyon, the Rio Grande River Gorge was pretty impressive. I was a scaredy-cat and didn't look over the side of the bridge for too long, just long enough to get a few pics...

The Gorge
John Caleb and Shelley

Erin and Daddy

Me, right before I panicked :-P

Red River

On July 5th we hopped a plane to Dallas, slept for two hours, and then piled into the caravan headed for Red River, NM with my side of the family - 24 people in all. The drive was long, but it was well worth it. The views were breathtaking and the weather was incredible!! These were taken at the top of the mountain after a 30 min ski lift ride.

Independence Day

Our 4Th of July was spent celebrating with our friends Michael and Millie Shipe as they tied the knot. We finished the evening with a trip to downtown DC for some T-Coast tex-mex (yum!) with friends and then back to the hotel where us girls crashed and the guys played poker for most of the night. It was a whirlwind couple of days! Here's a couple of pics from the wedding:

The Happy Couple!

The handsome groomsmen and his family :-)

The cutest girl at the party!

Me and Naomi in our matching dresses - no, we weren't in the wedding party.

the shape of things

Erin's latest: "Look mom, its a red octagon. S-T-O-P spells 'stop'"!

Meme?

that word sounds contrived, but so does this game.... 7 things you don't know about me - here goes:

1.) I am obsessed with real life crime, and am consequently always planning the "perfect crime".

2.) I collect bugles.

3.) I have false teeth.

4.) I used to sell vacuums for a living.

5.) I can name and sing almost any 80's pop song.

6.) I use the words "down yonder" and "darn tootin'" as much as possible.

7.) I can't seem to muster the narcissism necessary to take these seriously.

someday when my heart exhales i'll tell you everything.

throw a stone and watch the ripples flow

so i thought i'd return from the depths of morning sickness long enough to revive my blog, but i see that my husband has tended to it along with all the other chores he has taken on in my "absence". he's so wonderful!!

yes, pregnancy is just as hard the second time around (if not harder) and i find myself struggling to keep from losing too much weight. so far i've lost 8 lbs and i'm entering my 10Th week. we'll see if i break last pregnancy's record of 14 lbs lost. i'm on a steady diet of crackers and juice, and have at least managed to stay hydrated so as to avoid a hospital stay. my consolation is reading about other women who lose 20+ lbs and have 4 or 5 kids in their care... it could be much worse.

erin has struggled to adjust to this change in lifestyle, but is so blessed to have aunts, uncles, and grandparents who take care of her when i'm not able. and as i stated above, my sweet husband makes sure that all the dishes and laundry are done (even after a long day of work!), and sees to erin's needs all evening long. i know he's exhausted but i don't ever hear him complain. i couldn't make it without him.

my brother nathan is visiting this week, and it has been fun catching up/having company around the house. we've watched a lot of "A Baby Story", "What not to Wear", and "The Simpsons"... he's very patient to sit through those first two :-) this afternoon, he and caleb went with caleb's brothers to see "Spiderman 3" and now he's in the middle of a Halo 2 tournament with caleb and two of his friends. i hope he's enjoying his time here!

well that's about all i can muster. i have no new erin pictures to post... there will probably be an eight month void in her photograph collection

:-)

A Survivor's Story

Here is a link to a VT survivor's blog. It goes into great detail on what happened inside one of the classrooms.

It makes me ponder what I would do if I was in the same situation.

http://colmanfamilyupdates.blogspot.com/index.html

In Remembrance

Saturday, April 23rd, I took a trip down to the 'burg with some of my fellow Tech friends. I'm not sure why I felt the need to see the campus or be a part of the memorial events, but all of my Tech friends had the same urge...so I didn't fight it. It was a shame that Anne couldn't have come too, but the combination of 8 hours in a tight car plus the rolling Blacksburg mountains would have ruined the day for her.

Anyhow I thought I'd post some pictures and thoughts...

Norris Hall, the classroom building where 30 people were killed. The police have put crime tape around the entire building, which created about a 50 yard buffer zone. This buffer zone, designed to keep people from interfering with the crime zone also helped protect the public from the "carnage" of the event. Forensic cleanup crews were constantly entering and leaving the building, usually they were carrying out cardboard boxes filled with student's personal effects. Some of the boxes clearly contained clothing items...a few people next to me speculated that they must have been cut off the injured by EMTs. The second floor windows of the building were all open...I was told that on Thursday there was a strong odor emitting from them. Fortunately it was gone by Saturday as was the blood on the sidewalks. A friend told me that previously there had been paths of blood created when the police hurriedly dragged bodies out on Monday.

Constant streams of people were walking by the building while I was there. Flowers, lit candles, poems, letters, pictures were all left in remembrance.

Tents like these have been setup on the drillfield, which separates the academic buildings from the dorms. All of them followed this general theme...this one was unique because President Bush signed the giant "VT". There were people around who seemed to have taken it upon themselves to make sure that the candles were constantly lit.

Another collection of items people had left, these items were not meant for any particular person so that is why they are clumped together. Behind me were 32 separate piles of flowers, poems (a surprising number of original poems were placed throughout the campus), etc. for each of the victims. There was also another pile for the shooter…which included flowers and some letters, none of them expressed “ill will”. There were also a few letters for Cho’s family. In the background of this picture is Burruss Hall the college's administrative building...Norris Hall is immediately on the left of Burruss Hall.

Here is the picture of the pile left for Emily Hilscher:

I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the mainstream media has left. On the other hand there were many freelance photographers and writers running around trying to drum up a new story or take on the situation. Most of them were a terrible nuisance. Crying students usually would have at least one photographer following their every step. I was interviewed by one group who asked me something about which celebrity I felt should come to campus and speak out regarding the events. It was pointless, clearly demonstrating that the media has run out of real questions. I also saw what appeared to be a South Korean news organization asking people if their opinions of South Korean people as a whole were damaged.

One picture that I failed to take was of the media circus around a funeral at Blacksburg Baptist. While the press was not allowed on the church property, they effectively surrounded the church with the constant flash of cameras. Sometimes a free press can be a nightmare.

In the evening the campus catering service and about 15-20 local restaurants hosted a free dinner. It is no small thing to feed at least 10,000 people but there was plenty of food for everyone.

I was unable to visit the dorm where two people were killed. Even though I lived there for one year… only students can enter the building.

Not only am I not very good at taking pictures, but the zoom was also acting up on our camera, so this is the best "crowd shot" of the drillfield that I have. Note that the groups of people are at locations where people have put memorials:

And lastly a picture of an exhausted Hokie fan:

they told me to go back to the beginning... so i have.

pencil marks on a wall, i wasn't always this tall...

Sunday was Erin's 2ND birthday! It seems like yesterday we were bringing her home, and yet I also can hardly remember what life was like before she arrived. She is so special to us! I took her to the Doc for her 2 yr check up - she is 38 inches tall and weighs 30.2 lbs. The pediatrician asked if she has a vocabulary of at least 20 words... ha ha!! I told him that Erin never stops talking at home and would be surprised if it was less than 100 words. She has also memorized several of her favorite books and consequently can "read" to herself when I'm busy with other things. This helps me out a lot because when I read to her, she likes to have the same book read 3 or 4 times before moving on to the next, leaving me little time to finish laundry and dishes before the next meal. How did my mother do it????

Today (if the weather holds out) we'll be off to the zoo with Vanessa and crew. Erin enjoyed the zoo last spring, and it should be even more exciting now that she can talk about it. Her favorite animals are elephants, monkeys, and lions. Hopefully at least one of those will be out and about today :-)

I am so relieved that spring is here. All my life I thought I was a winter person, but I'm starting to realize that I was just a summer person who needed winter in order to fully appreciate summer. I don't like the sedentary feel of winter, especially with a daughter who loves to be outside on the swing as much as possible. She's already been asking when she can go to the pool! I wasn't even sure she'd remember the pool, but I guess she's a summer gal too...

time keeps moving from a crawl to a run...

A few weeks ago I went to Dallas for a conference with my Mom and sisters... Since my grandparents live in Ft. Worth, my Dad drove the rest of my siblings up from San Antonio and I got to see all of them in one place for a couple days. It was good. I'm not sure how long its been since just the 11 of us spent some time together (or if it'll ever happen again) but gosh it was great to be a family again for a day. Dad took us all out to Pancho's Mexican buffet (famous for their fabulous sopapillas) and even though there wasn't a table big enough to accommodate the whole group, it was a great time of laughing and reacquainting. I sat with Nathan, Shelley, Aubrey, Timothy, and Bethany, and I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time. We took turns quoting lines from "The Office" until our sodas were in danger of spewing from our noses. Gross, I know. But it made for good memories. I realized sitting at that table that I hardly know my little brother Tim. He takes Tai-kwon-do, is a pickier eater than I am, and is way taller than he has any right to be. It seems like yesterday he was a one-year-old and I was carrying him around everywhere - we shared a room and I fed him all his meals. Now he's 10 and loves to sword-fight. Where have all these years gone?? Now I'm a real mom with my own baby, and time moves even faster. There are sweet moments with Erin when I think "I'm gonna remember this forever" and a few days later I can hardly recall the circumstances... life goes on and we're too busy living it to document everything. But there are moments with my daughter and husband that I will remember forever, pictures or not. And I'll always remember the weekend in Dallas with my family. It WAS good.

I've been here before, I've seen it before...

I guess all bad things come in threes... We're currently at two and I'm not anxious to see what's next :-) Erin recovered quickly from her stomach bug last week. In fact, that very evening she was jumping up and down on her Daddy and begging for some of his dinner! But last night she went to bed with a fever and this morning woke up with an earache too... So, we're off to the doctor tonight to make sure its nothing serious. I don't buy into the whole "cold weather makes you sick" but lately I'm starting to wonder :-)

In happier news, we got a few beautiful inches of snow last night!! We woke up to a soft blanket of white this morning and have been enjoying the view all day. Its already melting but that's ok - snow is best in small doses...